Case Reporting at MSF

Case reports from MSF contexts add new and insightful information about an illness and its management to the medical literature. These reports of rare diseases, atypical presentations, or context-dependent case management can benefit other clinicians and humanitarian workers and are valuable for a variety of reasons:

Historical Value: they document the first time a disease is seen, a treatment or technique is successful, or a population is affected by a condition.
Educational Value: They enhance knowledge of clinical manifestations, novel diagnostic approaches, or therapeutic alternatives in a publicly available, easily understood format.
Directive Value: They inform research agendas, can lead to the design of more robust studies or evidence collection, can inform policymakers and guidelines.
Scientific Writing: Case Reports are published in peer-reviewed journals that demand rigorous scientific writing skills. The CCRI editors help authors improve their scientific writing skills and create more competitive journal submissions.
Humanitarian Context: These settings and patients are extremely under-represented in the literature. Documenting rare diseases, conditions, or injuries found among underserved populations expands knowledge of neglected conditions.

What does the CCRI offer to authors?

The CCRI Editorial Committee members bring combined decades of clinical, field, and research expertise. The committee can support with:

Medical editing and copyediting
Translation
Training, coaching, & author mentorship
Discounted submission fees and sponsored submissions to journals
Advising on informed consent
Assistance with internal and external publication policies and procedures
Travel scholarships for MSF Pediatric Days
Publication dissemination

Steps for Case Reporting

Step 1: Literature Review

How unique or novel is your case? Before approaching the CCRI, please take the time to review the published literature on your topic to make sure that something similar has not already been published. You will be asked by the CCRI editorial committee to explain the scientific relevance of your case (i.e. what it adds to the current understanding of the disease or treatment). This justification will also be clearly explained in your article.

If you need assistance conducting a systematic literature review, you can email CaseReports@msf.org for assistance.

Step 2: Concept Note

Once you have confirmed that you are reporting something truly novel in the literature, fill out the Concept Note template to tell the CCRI editorial committee more about your case and why it should be published. This process often can helps outline the article and will help committee members suggest a journal where the submission will be most competitive. A template of the Concept Note format can be found below:

Case reporting concept note template

Please note: Once your Concept Note has been completed, please send it to CaseReports@msf.org along with a copy of the signed informed consent that was obtained from the patient.

Step 3: Writing

Once a concept has been accepted into the CCRI, you can either proceed directly to producing a manuscript, or meet with editorial staff to receive training resources, determine a journal to target, or even outline your article. Editors are available to meet with authors or to provide remote support, as needed. Once a draft is produced, it should be circulated to relevant MSF counterparts in the mission, cell, and Medical Department. Final drafts can then be submitted to CaseReports@msf.org for medical and copyediting.

Step 4: Review

The CCRI editorial committee reviews all submissions to provide content and copyediting. Submissions are discussed at the monthly editorial meeting, the last Thursday of each month, and then feedback is provided.

In most cases, authors will meet with the committee after review to discuss feedback and confirm the journal the article will be submitted to (in some cases, the CCRI editorial staff will contact journal editors with pre-submission inquiries on the authors’ behalf. Authors are encouraged to openly discuss their article throughout the review and revision process to make it as competitive and complete as possible before submission to a journal.

Step 5: Validation

Once a revised manuscript is ready for submission, it must be approved for publication by the medical director of the section whose health facility treated the patient. The CCRI can assist authors with submitting their manuscript for this approval, or support authors as they navigate the validation process themselves.

Step 6: Journal Submission & Peer-Review

Authors will submit to their target journal themselves, but CCRI staff are available to help troubleshoot issues with editorial managers, copyright, or other questions as needed.

Step 7: Article Dissemination

Congratulations on publishing your case report! The CCRI have a variety of ways they can help amplify a published case report and help disseminate across MSF and to key audiences. CCRI staff can also advise if there are conferences or other opportunities that would welcome novel case reporting from humanitarian settings.

Have a question, or would you like to submit your concept note? Email CaseReports@msf.org

Ethics

Publishing a Clinical Case Report does not require ERB approval. Validation of these manuscripts rests with the Medical Director of the MSF operational center whose health facility the patient was treated in. However, these publications require strong ethical and privacy safeguards to assure that there is no legal violation, breach of medical secrecy, or informational harm to the patient. The following are the guiding principles of consent for MSF CCRI submissions:

Case Reports must always obtain informed consent from the patient or their guardian.
Consent cannot be verbal if the report is to be published.
Consent must be for both the use of any clinical information shared and for any photos, diagnostic imagery, or other images.
Consent occurs before the patient has died or been discharged from MSF care. If you think you will publish a case, obtain informed consent early.

The MSF-ERB has reviewed and approved the below script and form for use with patients being treated by an MSF caregiver whose case may be included in a journal publication.

Please speak with CCRI staff to determine if the journal being targeted for your article has specific informed consent requirements. All CCRI journal partners will accept the MSF-ERB approved informed consent script as sufficient consent to publish.